Britain’s Got Talent fans will be well aware of the wind-ups that go on between judges David Walliams and Simon Cowell .

Little Britain funnyman David is constantly ‘flirting’ with his fellow panelist – both of whom have had their sexuality questioned by fans in the past.

But it seems the jokes still have some people guessing if at least one of them prefers men to women.

David, 46, has revealed the most common question he’s asked by fans isn’t anything to do with his award-winning comedy, characters or kids’ books – but instead relates to Mr Nasty.

“The main question people ask me is: ‘Is Simon Cowell gay?'” he tells fellow comic John Bishop on his new In Conversation With chat show , which airs Thursday 14 September at 9pm on W.

“The one thing that makes Simon Cowell squirm is any sort of aspersion about his sexuality.

“I’ve played up to it. It does make him quite uncomfortable and I suppose that’s why I do it because I feel like my job on that show is to completely wind him up.”

Yet David also admits there’s a certain X Factor to Simon Cowell, adding: “I am quite starstruck by him and he has got a lot of charisma so it is hard not to have a little bit of a crush on him.”

During the episode – to kick off the third series of John Bishop’s hit Q&A-style programme which you can catch on Thursday night at 9pm on W – David addresses the rumours about his sexuality and says being camp is just “something that has naturally been me.”

He also reveals how he coped with bullies who targeted him over his effeminate ways while growing up at Reigate Grammar School.

“When I was young, Wonder Woman was on TV and she used to change by spinning round and I used to play that in the playground and not thinking very much of it,” he tells Bishop.

“I was in an all boys school and it was like ‘he wants to be Wonder Woman and we want to be Batman and Superman ‘.

“It was a bit of a defence mechanism at school. I had lots of knicknames and one of them was ‘Daphne’.

“There was lots of bullying. In the ’80s it was the worst thing to be gay and people would go around saying ‘you’re gay.’ It was the way of being mean to people.

“But I would embrace it and play up to it. If they called me Daphne I’d say ‘yes, my name’s Daphne’ and it would neutralise the bulling in a way. I could be the victor of it.

“Instead of me crying and running away I would go ‘yes, yes’ and show off, so in a way I was in on the joke.”

Watch John Bishop: In Conversation With David Walliams this Thursday 14 September at 9pm on W.